Life’s a beach

Christine Carrillo

In her attempt to flee the heat of Riverside County, Patricia Salica

drove to Newport Beach looking for a haven from it. With a four-day

weekend ahead of her, Salica anticipated the laid-back feel of the beach

and a jump-start on getting a summer-golden tan.

However, her relaxed weekend at the beach took a slight turn.

Arriving at the beach about 12:30 p.m. and expecting to lay out within

30 minutes, Salica didn’t find herself within walking distance of the

sand for almost two more hours on Thursday.

Instead, she found herself sitting in traffic fighting for any parking

space she could find.

“I really love the beach and I don’t get to go that often,” she said.

“I was excited on my way over but when I got here, it killed my buzz. I

swear I almost left.”

It turns out Salica wasn’t the only one anticipating a four-day

weekend spent at the beach.

In fact, about 120,000 people had the same idea of spending their

Fourth of July at the beach, said Newport Beach Lifeguards Capt. Jim

Turner.

With more adults and young adults crowding the beaches and boardwalks

than a normal weekend, parking became a difficult task.

“I drove around and around and nothing,” Salica said. “I finally got

lucky to find a space even though it wasn’t close to where I wanted to be

on the beach.”

Friday wasn’t much different.

Turner said that about 110,000 people were at the beach, about 30,000

more than an average weekend day despite the fact that Friday wasn’t a

holiday.

“I took off Friday,” said Garrett Turick, a one-month resident of

Newport Beach. “There was no way I was going to go back to work for just

one day.”

As an increased number of people from coastal and inland cities filled

the beaches and streets on Thursday and Friday, the weekend didn’t see

much change.

“We started off with a bang and then decreased to a good solid weekend

crowd after Friday,” Turner said.

Anticipating the large crowds on Thursday, lifeguard staffing mirrored

its weekend schedule of 65 people working each day. However, despite the

large turnout, Sunday stood as the busiest of the four days.

“We had only 23 rescues over the first three days and only a handful

of medical aids,” Turner said. “We had a problem with swarms of bees that

were trying to inhabit a tower. That was probably the most interesting

thing.”

The 1- to 2-foot surf helped keep the number of rescues low for the

holiday, but the 3-foot surf along some of the south-facing beaches on

Sunday led to more than 25 rescues on that day alone, Turner said.

While the low surf may play a role in the number of beach goers during

a normal weekend, it’s not much of a factor for the holiday goers.

“The Fourth of July crowd is interested in much more than just going

to the beach,” Turner said.

From bicycling to fishing, shopping to dining and surfing to swimming,

the holiday goers managed to do it all.

“It was a wonderful weekend,” Turner said. “The weather was nice, the

surf was quiet and the crowd was well-behaved.”

* Christine Carrillo is the news assistant. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4298 or by e-mail ato7 christine.carrillo@latimes.comf7 .